“The Americans look to Israeli intelligence in this matter,
whom we know lack conclusive proof of their own,” Gao observed. “To what extent
this enters into U.S. military calculations is difficult to say. They have yet
to launch all of their SBIRS low earth orbit satellites. The American strategy
in the near term can only be to rely on their sea-going theatre Aegis defenses
to destroy Iranian intercontinental launch vehicles in boost phase. A very risky
approach.”
Rong said, “The curtain is being drawn for Tehran by US
deployment of missile defense, just as it is for P’yongyang, Brussels, and us. The
new strategic balance, such as it is, will soon render obsolete our military
modernization efforts. Why should we be surprised by the desperation of any other
such country?” He glanced at the terrified looks directed his way.
“No one can predict the outcome of events in the Middle
East,” Rong continued. “It is likely that oil tanker deliveries to Chinese ports
will slow substantially. And we have stockpiled what, a billion barrels of oil?
At our current rate of consumption, we will deplete this in a matter of months.”
The finance minister possessed a sound working knowledge of
China’s petrochemical industry. He moved to protest.
Rong cut him off. “Comrade, everyone knows our supplies
from the Caspian basin are an unreliable dribble as are those from Xinjiang.” Both
regions were embroiled in ethnic and political turmoil. “How do you think our
people will respond once China’s economy grinds to a halt?”
“All right then, Rong,” said Finance Minister Huang, conceding
defeat in the battle to dominate the discussion. “What would you suggest we do?
Launch an invasion on Washington?”
Rong became reflective. “Defeating America economically by
enlisting the aid of OPEC, and then standing back, was always in my opinion
fundamentally flawed. The belief that this superpower would crouch without a
whimper toward their deterioration is simply mistaken. Our alliance with the OPEC
oil czars must itself be viewed with caution. Let’s remember who these
barbarians are. How are they different from any other foreign devils, who have
always sought to reduce Chinese people to subservient consumers? At their core
they are imperialist scum, bourgeois landlords demanding their rents. China
represents for them a preferred marketplace by virtue of our shared political
objective, and even then, only so long as the United States continues to meddle
in Middle East affairs and China promises to pay them hard currency. We cannot
afford to expect that either of these conditions will last indefinitely.”
Rong paused to allow his words to hang in the air as he
gauged the self-absorbed fear in his colleagues. “With the world’s attention
elsewhere, we can rid ourselves of these degrading vulnerabilities. Our
opportunity is great, but fleeting, to relegate American hegemony to an
historical footnote in university textbooks.”
General Secretary Zhou’s empty teacup slipped from his hand
and shattered on the floor. “And how do you propose we achieve that?”
“First, we allow events in the Middle East to work their
will. The second step toward our destiny lies in the South China Sea, which as
so happens, will also bolster the first. And the third, final step? All of us
here will be invited to witness the final step. It is already being arranged.”
101
Saturday, July 11
2:05 P.M. Tokyo, Japan
STUART GRIPPED THE HANDSET
TIGHTLY
to his ear while listening how his partner’s renowned savvy for
crafting a deal had miserably failed. “So, while we hemorrhage red ink, our
hopes are riding on some sort of kangaroo court?”
“We’ve already had our hearing, actually,” Ralph Perry
explained, “which is why you were able to find me here at midnight on a Friday.
Where have you been? Don’t you know what happened to Lewis?”
“Joanne? No.”
“Jesus. Better brace yourself. We were scheduled to motion
for an injunction but Lewis failed to show up at the courthouse.” Perry
explained that the Maryland State police reached him later at home and reported
finding her at a roadside rest stop, bound, beaten and barely conscious. “They
took her to Bethesda. We haven’t been able to speak with her yet. I’m sorry.” Perry’s
voice was heavy with sympathy. “I thought for sure you’d heard.”
“Is she going to be all right?”
“I spoke with her doc. She’s got a concussion and needed a
few stitches. Stu, they say she was raped, and brutally so.”
Raped
... Stuart fought to suppress the images of
Joanne bravely resisting with every ounce of her being. He tried and failed to
put a face on the animal attacking her.
“Stu?”
“Senseless...barbaric.”
“I’ll tell you something. We’re sitting here wondering who
might’ve decided to make certain we couldn’t challenge the Appropriations
decision.”
Stuart’s gaze wandered beyond a throng of travelers through
a panel of windows to the business jet that would fly him home—that is, as soon
as the pilots saw fit to arrive. Sam McBurney’s hulking figure descended the
steps and joined up with Carolyn Ross. The two headed toward the Narita
terminal in long, hurried strides. Whatever news had shaken McBurney must still
be playing out. “Do the police have any leads?” he asked Perry.
“They sent a detective down who asked a boatload of
questions but wouldn’t tell us much of anything. Apparently they think she was
the victim of a lone actor. That’s about all we know.”
A Japanese announcement resounded over the public address
system.
“Where are you, an airport?”
Stuart realized blind anger directed at no one was impotent
anger. He pushed it aside, for the moment. “You say nobody can access the
Project facility?”
“It’s locked-up downstairs and taped off like a damn crime
scene. We’re trying to figure what to do with three hundred people when they
show up for work Monday. Any ideas?”
You’re the one who landed this ridiculous contract,
Stuart wanted to say. “I’d start by having someone go back and take that
security breach a little more seriously.”
“Too late for that,” Perry grumbled.
“You’re wrong, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
Perry was silent, then finally said, “Like the way you
proved our security lapse to the government, with help from the stadium guy up
in Baltimore?”
“Alright, I can’t arm wrestle you over it now. I need to
catch up with Emily Chang. Any chance she’s still around?” He had already tried
unsuccessfully to raise her at home.
Ralph Perry turned from the speakerphone in the middle of
his desk and toward the man slouched in the chair beside the door. “You caught
up with her and Thackeray the other day,” Perry recalled aloud. “Did they say
where they would be?”
Steve Reedy puckered his lips. “Mmmm—nope,” he lied, shaking
his head. “Didn’t say.”
Perry addressed the speakerphone. “I’d try her at
home. And hurry back here, will you? We’ve got a friggin’ mess on our hands.”
* * *
TWO HOURS LATER THE CIA
co-pilot put the aircraft into a steep climb, leveling the wings from a
thirty-degree bank heading east with the shadows cast by the Tokyo skyline.
Stuart was relieved to hear Emily answer Thackeray’s
telephone. Her voice sounded sluggish, understandably so at 2:47
A.M.
on the East Coast.
“I must’ve fallen asleep,” she replied dreamily. “Thack’s
here. We’ve been trying to—oh, it’s happened again. Thack intercepted another suspicious
video transmission.” Emily explained how the errant broadcast coincided with
what most of the world understood to be a deadly New Jersey refinery explosion.
“When?”
“That was Thursday morning, right before we had to pack up
our things and leave. You haven’t heard about it? The news coverage has been
non-stop.”
Stuart glanced to his left. Across the biz-jet’s passenger compartment,
McBurney sat facing Carolyn Ross, their conversation obscured by the drone of
the engines. “We’ve been a little distracted for the last few days,” Stuart
replied in a low voice. “Are you confident in the data?”
“Thack’s been trying to crunch through the encryption. So
far he’s only been able to glean what looks like alphanumeric time-stamps and so
forth. But the ideograms are definitely Chinese.”
“That doesn’t come as a surprise. Do you understand what I
mean by that?”
Silence ensued while Emily considered his point. “You were
successful, but can’t go into it now?”
“More or less.”
“We are a little confused on this end. Police say they’ve
captured the terrorists who planted the refinery bomb.”
Stuart figured the authorities would tend to err on the
side of detaining suspicious types following any such event. “Could be a case
of mistaken arrest. Listen, did you hear about Joanne Lewis?”
“Only that she was missing. Is she okay?”
Stuart shared what little Perry had told him about her
being assaulted. As he expected, Emily became very upset by the news.
“Oh, no, Joanne... Do you think Paul Devinn might have been
behind it?”
“Perry thinks someone wanted to knock the injunction out
from under him by taking out his lawyer. I don’t understand what you mean. What’s
Devinn got to do with shutting down CLI?”
“I wasn’t thinking of CLI,” Emily corrected him. “I was
thinking Joanne Lewis is Ashley’s godmother.”
Stuart was struck by how that angle hadn’t even occurred to
him. What the hell
was
going on?
“Stu?”
Suddenly there seemed too much going on to get their arms
around. The effects of his sleep deprivation were not helping. “We’re due into
Dulles late in the afternoon. I think I’ve lined up everything you’re going to
need. Now, does CLI’s facility being shut down pose any real problem?”
“Problem? It’s not a problem, it’s a showstopper! We
haven’t been delayed yet, but at some point Thack’s going to need access to the
satellite terminal. He cannot access it remotely.”
“I’ll take care of that with Perry.” Stuart glanced across
the aisle in time to catch McBurney looking his way. “So what do you think of
Thack’s place?”
“It’s lovely, and really secluded. You can hardly see any
of the neighbors.”
“You, uh, I trust Thack’s being hospitable?”
“Thack’s being Thack,” Emily replied. “You’re not jealous,
are you?”
“Jealous?” A pause. “I get to see Thack almost every day.”
“That’s very funny. So you would prefer to be talking to
Thack?”
“Not just yet.” Stuart took a deep breath. “I have
something else important to tell you. Very good news, actually. I was hoping to
share it with you in person but I hadn’t expected this long of a trip. Are you
sitting down?”
“I am.”
“Good. I was able to confirm that your mother is alive. She’s
very sick, and they’re importing some sort of medication to help her along, but
Emily, she’s
alive
.” Stuart was certain he had stunned her into silence.
He decided to give her a moment. It wasn’t every day that a cherished loved-one
was resurrected from obscurity.
“Are you certain?”
“Both of your parents are alive and well. I guess your
dad’s out of prison and working, Deng said ‘shoulder-to-shoulder with his
comrades again.’ ”
“Stu, I...where did he say my mother is?”
“Deng thinks she’s being moved to Beijing, and that she’s
receiving the best hospital care available.”
He thought he heard Emily sniffle. “I so want to believe
what you were told. It’s just that I don’t know what to believe any more. And now,
I’m worried about my father.”
“Didn’t you hear me? He’s no longer in prison.”
“Deng said that my father was working in Beijing?”
“That’s right. Oh...
damn.
I think I see your point. That
never even occurred to me.” Stuart lowered his voice to a whisper, “You think
he might actually be working
there
, against us?”
“My father may not have any choice.”
“Wouldn’t Deng have taken the opportunity to tell me?”
“I don’t know. Would Deng want to risk informing my father
what we plan to do?”
Stuart realized how easy to have asked Deng exactly where her
father was. “I wouldn’t race to any conclusions. I mean, we are speculating
here.”
He heard Emily sigh. “I’m very, very happy about my
mother. Maybe there’s still hope for her. Thank you so much for telling me.” Her
voice was beginning to break up. She handed over the phone to Thackeray.
LULLED BY THE SERENITY
at
thirty-seven thousand feet, Carolyn Ross snuggled beneath a blanket on the
plane’s single leather sofa. Meanwhile, the content of the Immediate Cable in
McBurney’s hands had rendered him unable to sleep. Were recent Chinese military
deployments, although minor in nature, actually a prelude to greater
mobilization—the forceful reunification of Taiwan? He had dismissed estimates
by some analysts that their massive oil hoarding might be in preparation for
war. Had he been wrong, after all? What else might explain China’s strategy in monitoring
the passage of Seventh Fleet warships through the South China Sea?
McBurney interrupted his musing to find Stuart crouching
beside him.
“There’s something you probably ought to know,” Stuart said
quietly, glancing at Ross’s sleeping form.
McBurney pulled his stocking feet from the opposite seat.
Stuart sat down and leaned forward. “My staff believe they
measured transmissions twice now from an orbiting satellite, both times at the
instant of these recent terrorist attacks. Now, they don’t have access to the
sort of equipment that would track and verify it. Thing is, they say they’ve
identified the transmissions as being Chinese in origin.”